Voyage Junkie

Again using our trusty train passes, we journeyed to Heidelberg. This was a bit of a hike, as we took the high-speed train to Stuttgart, then changed to another local train which took us right to the historic district. We were able to easily walk to the beautiful old city, and saw gorgeous graffiti on the way. On the way into town, we didn't take this tunnel because we weren't sure of the directions. On the way back, we did, and it turned out way easier (and was also covered in spectacular graffiti). Once in the heart of the old city, we chose a Thai restaurant for lunch. Pictured below is the view from our outside table, at least before the hornets moved in a chased us inside. Can you spot the tourist trap kitsch on the left side of the frame? After our meal we wandered around the old city, checking out shops and cobbled streets. Matt wanted to visit the University library, so that was our main destination. It was an impressive structure both inside and out. The exterio...

Part of the adventure in Iceland is driving the Ring Road, or Route 1. This highway goes all the way around Iceland in, you guessed it, a circle or ring. Matt estimates that we drove about 1/3 of the ring from Reykjavik to Akureyri and then back again. Most Ring Road travelers might scoff at us for this boomerang of sorts, as it seems like the typical method is to commit to the whole ring. That seems incredible if one can dedicate the time and money, which we could not last year. Perhaps in the future there will be another choice. Regardless, we loved our drive. On the way up to Akureyri we pretty much just drove after the museum in Borgarnes, in order to make it to our destination on time. On the way back to Reykjavik we meandered, stopping at any interesting site we found along the way. The first incredible view was this rainbow. We were at the start of our journey and I was driving. We came to a place where we needed to continue around a slight curve to continue on 1 while ro...

The entire reason we went to Akureyri was to be close to Lake Myvatn and the gorgeous sights that surround it. We were not disappointed in the least. The first sight we came upon was Godafoss, which I think means something like "waterfall of the Gods." It is huge, breathtakingly so. It falls from a height of 12 m and spans a distance of 30 m. The picture below gives a relatively good impression of what it is like to stand and look up at it. The area was also home to some plants we'd never seen before. It was neat to see Icelandic plants that we couldn't find at home. The water from the falls also continued downstream into other smaller falls as it continued on its way. The next stop on our itinerary as we drove around the lake was Skutustadagigar. This is a sprawling landscape of lava craters that were made when gas exploded in lava. It's impossibly green now, and cultivated for farming. There are paths that wander up and down through the craters, and yo...

We visited Germany over Easter, which meant a lot of candy coupled with large family gatherings with tons of champagne and incredible food.  One day we went to a gathering with one of Martina's uncles, where we met a lot of her cousins.  They were lovely people, very festive.  We enjoyed talking with them about the state of the world, what might happen in the next American election, taking a long walk in the snowy weather, and toasting a ridiculous amount of champagne to all the family milestones (a baby on the way and a marriage next year).  Martina's uncle is also an antique camera collector so we got to see his fairly substantial collection.  I even impressed him by being able to open one of the oldest models that he couldn't figure out.  To the right is a picture of Martina and her siblings, Maxi and Suzi, who we got to spend some nice time with. On Easter Sunday proper, we went to Martina's family home for a celebration with her mother and sibli...

We had a three-day weekend, so one of Matt's teachers took us "hiking" on a "mountain" on Sunday.  It's lucky we chose Sunday so we could rest on Monday, because I'm currently nursing the worst sunburn I've had since childhood, and Matt torqued up his knees pretty badly.  Maybe in another few days I won't be such a lobster, and Matt will be able to walk normally again.  Are we old?  At 28, I don't think so... especially since we lift weights, run, dance, walk and ride bikes all over Japan.  Before moving out of Colorado, we routinely went for weekend hikes all over the Rockies without much trouble.  Okay, first trouble: we didn't have good hiking shoes.  The whole indoor/outdoor only shoe thing here makes it impossible to wear shoes for various purposes, so we couldn't wear our sneakers with much better treads, we had to wear our outdoor pumas.  Those are slippery!  Second trouble: the sun is so strong here!  Even with 50 spf, I bur...

We headed to the famous island Miyajima in order to recuperate from the historical beating Hiroshima's museums and monuments provided the day before.  We took the streetcar line to the island, which gave us about an hour's ride through Hiroshima suburbs.  It was a very interesting ride.  We saw insane apartment buildings, mountains, shopping centers, schools, and finally the little waterfront town that boasts two ferries to Miyajima. We bought a 2-day streetcar, ferry, and ropeway pass when we arrived in Hiroshima the other day, and we put it to good use on Miyajima.  It was an insane deal, plus we got to ride the historical streetcars and thumb our nose at JR, the national transportation system.  JR is awesome, don't get me wrong, but this felt like shopping local.  It seemed important, and it was fun. The pass got us on the trolley, then across the water on the ferry.  As you approach the island, you see the famous o-torii  gate standing in ...